Their point is “billions” in securities representing the market capitalization of various organizations is not equivalent to purchasing power. The organization is not a silo full of energy, food, construction workers, and healthcare.

The “billions” are a constantly changing representation of what the average buyer in the market might be willing to pay at a certain point in time.

Good luck taking away the detached single family homes, pickup trucks, SUVs, commercial flights, out of season fruits/vegetables, and imported manufactured goods. The people that expect those things are the “ small number of people hoarding a majority of the wealth”, and there are quite a few of them (probably 1B+ worldwide).

Comparing those people to the richest few thousand people in the US and Europe is very disingenuous.

I cannot relate to this experience at all. I can open up the TV app on my phone/tablet/laptop/TV and watch almost whatever I want pretty quickly, without ad breaks. It is far more convenient than the old set top box situation. I would say I wait a maximum of 60 seconds, and probably 30 seconds most of the time, to start watching what must be a considerably large portion of all professionally produced media in the US.

How do you do that without ads? Every single service has ads, even on paid tiers. And sponsored content that is recommended regardless of my actual tastes.

This is the reason I buy physical media, rip it to my home server and use Plex. No suggested bullshit. No ads at all.

How do you do that with paid services? What does your setup look like? Because I can't figure out how to do that using commercial products.

Obviously, product placement ads cannot be avoided.

The ads at the beginning of a show can be skipped pretty easily.

I can mentally ignore sponsored content, but you are right that it is an ad that. I almost never browse though, and just use the search function.

Apple tv+, Amazon prime with the extra $5 per month or whatever, and peacock’s higher tier paid through Apple don’t have ads breaks in the middle of the media for me. Neither did Max when I had it a couple years ago.

Other shows or seasons that are rented with a lifetime license from apple (what they call “buying”) don’t have ad breaks either.

> The U.S. used to have a bigger problem with organized crime, but it has been subdued before mass surveillance was an option.

I thought it was credit cards and electronic payments that subdued organized crime (or at least moved it into the realm of the white collar, lawyer-facilitated “legal” crimes through official channels), which greatly reduces the violence component.

A big part of this is that apparently, any president can unilaterally decide to go to war and spend $1B per day destroying things, but building infrastructure for Americans requires the agreement of 60 US Senators.

Pre-emptive strikes are “national security”, but ensuring nutritional food for children in schools, safe bridges and potable water, and healthcare are not “national security”.

Look what Biden had to do to try and get Americans a piddling amount of paid sick leave and paid parental leave. And still 60 votes couldn’t be mustered. But if he wanted to bomb another country to the stone age, that was well within his capacity.

US states are free to build infrastructure without any federal involvement or permission. California just spent $114M to build a wildlife crossing bridge over Highway 101.

https://smmc.ca.gov/liberty-canyon-wildlife-corridor/

That’s not the same thing tho. issit?

How is it not the same? State governments can just build things without the approval of federal senators.

Starting with CodingJeebus' comment, the context of the discussion is what the US federal government can and cannot do, or does and does not do, at the best of a single person (the US President). They have the power to direct destruction, but not the power to direct creation.

Not only is a state government's capabilities irrelevant, it is also incomparable to the might of the US federal government, given its unique ability to sell US Treasuries and issue US currency. State governments are also in competition with each other, unlike the federal government which is in competition with other countries and has more power to restrict and negotiate trade agreements.

You're completely missing the point. States can build infrastructure on their own. They don't need to depend on the federal government for everything.

There are far too many documentaries that omit or slant information for documentaries as a category to be considered informational. Especially ones on Netflix.

In the US, there is (and has been) a pretty solid route from academic achievement to high incomes, and from there, higher incomes leads to larger selection of potential mates.

I don’t see how boys are not rewarded socially for academic achievement. If anything, men have lower physical attractiveness standards, so men are more rewarded than women for the same amount of academic achievement.

I believe your referring to the exception and not the rule.

Presumably, the owners of the land do consent to it being built.

Lots of people are being placated/medicated with stupid AI generated memes being forwarded on Whatsapp/Facebook/Instagram/TikTok/Reddit/Snapchat.

Looks like they are not placated enough to keep from demanding their politicians to stop the buildup.

I grew up with homogenized milk, and the mere smell of unhomogenized milk makes me want to vomit. Even boiled milk is awful. Unhomogenized cow milk was slightly more tolerable than unhomogenized ox milk.

Incredibly confused by this comment. Does homogenization alter the smell?

>Even boiled milk is awful What does this have to do with homogenization? I wouldn't want boiled milk either unless it was to be used in a soup or something.

Are you confusing homogenization with pasteurization?

Yes, my bad. I realize I don’t even know what homogenized milk is.